Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Click on the photo & look closely & you'll see she has less than half her wings left. I don't see how this old girl can still fly. This was probably her last flight. They literally fly their little wings off.

Lots of pollen. She's a beauty!

I'm waiting on an ID for these moths. They really liked the Aster flowers.

Update! The Alfalfa Looper (Autographa californica) is a moth of the Noctuidae family.

Monday, September 28, 2015

I wasn't sure I was going top be able to see the eclipse because of the hill to the east, but it rose up at about when the eclipse went total. Not knowing what I was doing camera wise didn't help for the first 40 or so pretty blurry exposures. At the last minute, I realized I needed a shorter exposure speed, and needed to lock the mirror up & use a remote trigger. I figure I'll have the technique down in time for the next one in 2033.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

I may have posted this photo before, I'm not sure, but I'm partial to it & this post needed a bee so here it is!.

Everything is wired at last. Lots of outlets and three sets of switched lights, center section and each end. That way I save a little power using only what I need. The 3'x8' work table at the east end is in, and the little compressor plugged in under it. It is nice to be getting all the bee stuff in one place. There are lots of jigs, tools, and wood ware still in the basement. I still need a rack to hang frames and a couple of shelves, but it's almost done. I salvaged a couple of old tool box drawers from the wreck we had moving here & used a set of slides I scored at the dump. Someone tossed a dozen nice drawer slides, so I quietly picked them up. The landfill doesn't approve of those things. They would rather see them buried. One day I picked up a dozen tee posts.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

But not any old cow urine will do, according to the followers of the hardline Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sect — only the urine collected from a female virgin cow will suffice, and it's best when collected before dawn.

"Cow urine offers a cure for around 70 to 80 incurable diseases like diabetes," Om Prakash, of the RSS Cow Protection Department, told Reuters. "All are curable by cow urine." "We refer to gau ark (cow urine) as gau jal (cow water), as it has immense potential to cure various diseases," Prakash told The Telegraph. "We have developed a soft-drink formula with gau jal as the base."

For people who would rather not drink their cow urine straight, the RSS has developed a cow-urine-based soft drink called Gomutra Ark. The drink is promoted as a "healthy" alternative to Coca-Cola, Pepsi and other soft drinks, which are seen as part of a wider problem resulting from corrupt Western influences.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Up in the woods above the house. They look pretty healthy. It must be all the veggies and apples they ate from our garden the last couple of weeks. I see the camera still reads a month off. I thought I reset it.